My ex taught at ISB about twenty years ago. At that time, I think she made around $3,000 per month, with five years prior experience in the IS system, and a Master's in Elementary Education (US) certified to teach K-8. Probably would be closer to 5K now.

Experienced, credentialed public school teachers in my large US city don't make $5K/mo unless they have a doctorate degree, and then just barely.

ISB is not an American public school. Google ISB salaries. If she made 3K a month 20 years ago, 5K a month in today's salaries is probably about right. American public schools are paid for by taxpayers. Thus, salaries are as low as they can get away with. It costs 37K a year to send a kid to the International School in Manila.

My ex taught at ISB about twenty years ago. At that time, I think she made around $3,000 per month, with five years prior experience in the IS system, and a Master's in Elementary Education (US) certified to teach K-8. Probably would be closer to 5K now.

Experienced, credentialed public school teachers in my large US city don't make $5K/mo unless they have a doctorate degree, and then just barely.

ISB is not an American public school. Google ISB salaries. If she made 3K a month 20 years ago, 5K a month in today's salaries is probably about right. American public schools are paid for by taxpayers. Thus, salaries are as low as they can get away with. It costs 37K a year to send a kid to the International School in Manila.

Well that makes sense, then - These international schools are recruiting a higher level of talent. In the US, the talent/dedication/quality of unionized teachers in a public school district varies widely from stellar to abysmal, but they all get paid the same based on education & years of service. Thus the pay here reflects a lowest common denominator.

There's also a bunch of schools that pay around 100K-150K plus allowances et al.

RIS - Ruamrudee Int'l School
Shrewsbury
Harrows

plus more, just google int'l school thailand.

Shrewsbury don't pay that much (and I'm pretty confident neither do RIS). As an example, for a PGCE qualified teacher with 5+ years of experience you'll be lucky to be getting 100k. Housing will be on top of that, maybe 20k for a single teacher. Where you get your figures of upto 150k + allowances I simply don't know. I got mine from Shrewsbury's official payscale, which I have a copy of somewhere. These figures also apply to Bromsgrove, Regents, Bangkok Prep, Garden and Ascot. Any of the St Andrews schools pay even less, as do pretty much every other mid and low tier school.

I have copies of the salary scales for every school I have mentioned, so I know this to be fact, not hearsay.

Of the schools I know that will pay the sort of money being quoted here, Harrow and BP (I have copies of their salary scales) get close, but only if you have 10+ years experience and are highly qualified and sought after. Even then, to be breaking the 150k and getting towards the 200k it would include the housing allowance at the top rate i.e. married, partner not working and children.

Look at my earlier post on page 1 of my thread for an approximation of what the schools pay. But bare in mind the less experience you have, the less money you will get.

That's more or less what I said, innit ? Perhaps I'm not 100% exact on all of the schools but it's within the ballpark. (I'm also basing my figures on what I know of 10 years ago, and I've extrapolated slightly, perhaps too generously for some.)

* And as to which part of the salary scale you wanna talk about, of course beginning teachers get less, I'm talking teachers on 10-20 years experience. ie middle to top of the salary scale as the OP is asking what salaries are possible and that's what is possible, not what are the minimum salaries for beginning teachers or for TEFL scum trying to upgrade to improve their sorry lot in life.

** I'm also talking about qualified teachers, with Bachelor degrees, PGCEs or equivalent and Master degrees in Education. (as that is the International Standard)

My Personal Research

Hey I am looking for some answers too. So when I was in Bangkok at my apartment I asked around from real people who I meet. I think I know most of the answers now.

I went to ask some real people who I meet on the street, in libraries, stores and places in Bangkok. I just ask them what is their job, as they drive a bike home or a car home from their office jobs in Bangkok. I got some real answers. One guy said he was a manager of teachers who work for an independent company like contractors and are assigned to work at some local high schools or universities in Bangkok. He said the salaries can range from 30,000 thb up to 90,000 thb for the real teachers. I asked him what is a real teacher? He said you got a certification from your state at home in USA or Australia or English (1st English Language countries). Then you can get a work permit after you are hired and it can be done before you travel to Thailand or any other country you wish. It has to be done with minister of foreign affairs and all that is on the website of the country if you look it up.

Online, I was not happy with the simple marketing answers I got from about 10 different companies who offer the TEFL or the CELTA. Both claim to be experts. They think that the CELTA is the best and not the TEFL and they don't know much about my idea of becoming a certified teacher first. They just want you to go on vacation someplace and spend a lot of money while you learn for 2 weeks about international teaching and not much English.

I tried to figure out exactly what is an "International Teacher" and opinions are like elbows, everybody's got one. The truth is there are two companies that own this title and there is a history also. It started with the Germans and Swiss before WWII and also the Russians were segregated under different standards. Long story short, now there are two organizations that own the titles of what is an IB school called the IB and the ECIS. Many companies are certified to teach you short 2 week or 2 month courses in the TEFL or the CELTA. I used to call them "90 day wonders" because it's like comparing an accredited program to a short OCS school lasting 16 weeks of hell and accelerated training. Those are just people who get paid about 30,000 baht per month if they are lucky with limited budgets. So the fact is that if you want the 90,000 baht per month paycheck then first you will get state certification as a real teacher here at home in the USA. If you are Australian your own state does it there. So I signed up for graduate school and I had to pass all my courses, about 15 of them, plus my BS degree before that, and also my Praxis 1, Praxis 2, VRA, VCLA and those types of state reading and writing standardized exams. Those all cost about $600 to $800 total and are considered "national test standards". Of course, you need a good "disposition" and no criminal backgrounds also to become a real certified teacher.

If you to become an International Teacher but first you need to get certified in your home country. Then you have to work 2 years abroad somewhere. Then you have to go to either the ECIS or the IB who are both descendents of the original programs and own the titles of IB and are the only way to complete the process.
• ECIS European Council of International Schools (ECIS) certifies 6 University graduate credits.
• International Baccualareate (IB) Certification after 2 years abroad pending travel to Geneva.
• CELTA (the best TEFL) from Cambridge 2 month program pending travel to London at Oxford.

If you google those terms you will find the websites for those organizations. You will soon realize to qualify for that you have to work 2 years first in Thailand. Then you can go for the certification of being an International Teacher. Of course back here in my home state they don't give much credit to the IB or the ECIS and even seem to resent them.

They only care about their own university programs and they boast of they were the first one in USA to make an IB program. But fact is, they had to get authority from either Geneva or London, who own those trademarks. They keep that all hush hush because they think of their own university as "the authority" but they don't own the rights, it's owned by ECIS and IB.

Remember, the guy in Bangkok told me that if I want to earn 90,000 baht per month and not the measley little 30,000 salary, then I will need to get state certified as a teacher here in USA first. It also helps to actually do some teaching here or somewhere so it's on the resume'. Volunteering is possible if you have the time and the resource of a school to let you in. The closest thing here in the USA to teaching international is called ESOL, which are those students who are trying to learn English at the same time to keep up with the rest of the students their own age, under 18, and who are at risk or disadvantages due to language difficulty. Also students with a disability bring up the issue of differentiation and tiering, which is when you design a lesson plan for different levels of skill or ability, basically, and types of people, some artistic, some visual, etc.

Hope this all helps. Sure if you are an engineer you got a lot to offer, and a long way to go to get the certifications in order to earn 90,000 baht per month in Thailand. But if you are motivated and study 4 courses per semester like me, well then, you can get it done in 1.5 years or up to 2.5 years time. Then the fun begins abroad. Students in Thailand are very pleasant in general and have much less discipline problems. Fact.

Now this 100K you speak about, is that per month, per year or in Thai Baht or in some other denomination? It only makes sense to me if this is 100,000 THB per month, and that's the top and best teacher with all certifications.

I'm not sure what ISB is but I will look at up. Is this an acronym for IB or for a particular international school? If so, that title is owned by Geneva and London. Americans are also made to comply here at our own IB high schools in order to carry that trademark. I did hear some Friends speak about it costing 50,000 for a student to learn to fly at a university. If the students are going to a big IB school in Asia, I doubt it is based on only US American standards. I think the British and Australians still have more influence on what's going on with tourism and education abroad. But they are trying to gleam the positive things out of teaching philosophy such as differentiation and tiering. I am not sure if they are also completely bound to all the inclusion laws which we are here with the act of NCLB. I think over there they take rich, wealthy children and gifted students and put them with the most expensive and best teachers. Where here in USA we are always trying to give everybody the same equal opportunity, and not always successfully, but forcing every effort on the expense of our system. That's probably why you mentioned that teachers salaries are lower than they should be today because there is so much other administration.

Secondly, only the International Baccalaureate has the 'rights' to the abbreviation IB, not American schools, not London, not Geneva etc (however, Geneva was the original Headquarters of the IB) and they do not 'certify' anybody as an International Teacher, there is no such certification.

Schools will look at your accreditation, in your home country. End of story.

$2,500 is about 79,000 baht. I don't know of any professor that earns that as a basic wage (might be possible, especially at private unis).

Working at an international school is better paid, so earning that or higher is possible. Once you get above the 80,000 to 100,000 per month range, even for the top private schools, I should imagine these jobs would be very hard to find.

I can say that 79,000 is LOW for an well know international school IF your hired out of country,
The teachers at BIS ( British international school Formally Dulwich) here in Phuket start at 90,000+15,000/month housing/med/and visas paid for and a trip home/year

QSI (small private school but all over the world) starts at 75,000/10,000 housing/med and 1 trip home /year paid ( apx 35,000)

Last edited by Phuketrichard; 04-11-2012 at 09:04 AM.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol or insanity, but they've always worked for me" HST

Shrewsbury International School
Benefits: An excellent international package of benefits including:
• Two-year contracts;
• Excellent accommodation in Central Bangkok for singles and
couples is available at The Chatrium, adjacent to the school
(Luxury Hotels Bangkok | Chatrium Hotels & Residences Official Site) or for singles, couples and families at Bangkok
Garden, only minutes from the school (Serviced Apartment for rent at Sathorn Road Bangkok Thailand | Bangkok Garden Apartment).
The accommodation is provided free of charge, although a small tax
deduction is made at source.
• Flights at the beginning and end of each contract;
• Relocation allowance at the beginning and end of employment;
• Medical insurance with BUPA;
• Generous support for personal professional development

60-75k THB (£1200-£1500) fresh off the plane (plus benefits).
Add more time in the classroom and move up.
Top of the scales are in the 130k thb range. (~£2400).

For local hire though - OObie is Thai? well, 30-40k with no benefits one would assume